Potential of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) for paired phytoremediation and bioenergy production
Open accessAbstract
Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is a multi‐use crop that has been investigated for its potential use in phytoremediation of heavy metals, radionuclides, and organic contaminants, and as a feedstock for bioenergy production. A review of research literature indicates that hemp is a suitable crop for phytoremediation, and a competitive option for bioenergy. Coupling phytoremediation and bioenergy production from a single hemp crop is a potential solution to overcoming the economic constraints of phytoremediation projects. The current challenge is ensuring that the extracted contaminants are not introduced into the consumer marketplace. After several decades of limited research on hemp in the United States, the purpose of this review is to identify the knowledge available for hemp applications in phytoremediation or in production of bioenergy, and if and how those two purposes have been combined. The literature shows that hemp growth has been demonstrated successfully at the field scale for phytoremediation and in several bioenergy conversion technologies. Little is known about the fate of contaminants during hemp growth or during post‐harvest processing, especially the relationships between hemp genetics, metabolomics, and contaminant partitioning. Complicating the understanding is the expectation that contaminant fate will be dependent on the contaminant type, the concentration in the material, and the processing methods. Before hemp from phytoremediation applications can be used for bioenergy, the fractionation of heavy metals, radionuclides, and/or organic compounds during transesterification, anaerobic digestion, fermentation, and/or combustion of hemp must be evaluated.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Contaminated hemp biomass can be considered for composting, pyrolysis, or metal recovery.
“Contaminated biomass can also be considered for composting, pyrolysis, or metal recovery (Rheay et al. 2021).”
From A critical review of industrial fiber hemp anatomy, agronomic practices, and valorization into sustainable bioproducts (2025) · cites this paper as Rheay et al. 2021
Cites
Sun, Q., Li, H., Yan, J., Liu, L., Yu, Z., & Yu, X. (2015) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2015.06.029 · Cited by 924 · see citing works
A Technological Overview of Biogas Production from Biowaste
Achinas, S., Achinas, V., & Euverink, G. J. W. (2017) · Engineering · doi:10.1016/j.eng.2017.03.002 · Cited by 586 · see citing works
Heavy metal tolerance and accumulation of Cd, Cr and Ni by Cannabis sativa L.
Citterio, S., Santagostino, A., Fumagalli, P., Prato, N., Ranalli, P., & Sgorbati, S. (2003) · Plant and Soil · doi:10.1023/a:1026113905129 · Cited by 189 · see citing works
Kreuger, E., Sipos, B., Zacchi, G., Svensson, S.-E., & Björnsson, L. (2011) · Bioresource Technology · doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2010.10.126 · Cited by 152 · see citing works
Husain, R., Weeden, H., Bogush, D., Deguchi, M., Soliman, M., Potlakayala, S., Katam, R., Goldman, S., & Rudrabhatla, S. (2019) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0221570 · Cited by 91 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Furthermore, research has indicated that cannabinoids are overexpressed as a result of heavy metal accumulation (Husain et al., 2019), which has the potential to exacerbate legality issues when hemp is used for phytoremediation.”
BackgroundStonehouse, G. C., McCarron, B. J., Guignardi, Z. S., El Mehdawi, A. F., Lima, L. W., Fakra, S. C., & Pilon-Smits, E. A. H. (2020) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/acs.est.9b07747 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Pietrini, F., Passatore, L., Patti, V., Francocci, F., Giovannozzi, A., & Zacchini, M. (2019) · Water · doi:10.3390/w11040808 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Tripathi, M., Sharma, M., Bala, S., Connell, J., Newbold, J. R., Rees, R. M., Aminabhavi, T. M., Thakur, V. K., & Gupta, V. K. (2023) · Separation and Purification Technology · doi:10.1016/j.seppur.2023.124018 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Moving towards Biofuels and High-Value Products through Phytoremediation and Biocatalytic Processes
Ionata, E., Caputo, E., Mandrich, L., & Marcolongo, L. (2024) · Catalysts · doi:10.3390/catal14020118 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Phytoremediation of Cadmium-, Lead-, and Nickel-Polluted Soils by Industrial Hemp
Testa, G., Corinzia, S. A., Cosentino, S. L., & Ciaramella, B. R. (2023) · Agronomy · doi:10.3390/agronomy13040995 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Marzi, D., Valente, F., Luche, S., Caissutti, C., Sabia, A., Capitani, I., Capobianco, G., Serranti, S., Masi, A., Panozzo, A., et al. (2025) · Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.178323 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Basak, M., Broadway, M., Lewis, J., Starkey, H., Bloomquist, M., Peszlen, I., Davis, J., Lucia, L. A., & Pal, L. (2025) · BioResources · doi:10.15376/biores.20.2.basak · Cited by 22 · see citing works
“Contaminated biomass can also be considered for composting, pyrolysis, or metal recovery (Rheay et al. 2021).”
Ahmadi, F., Kallinger, D., Starzinger, A., & Lackner, M. (2024) · Nitrogen · doi:10.3390/nitrogen5030042 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
- Authors
- Rheay, H. T., Omondi, E. C., & Brewer, C. E.
- Affiliations
- New Mexico State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Brewer, Catherine E.
- Venue
- GCB Bioenergy
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2020-12-07
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 525-536
- ISSN
- 1757-1693 (ISSN-L)
- 1757-1707
- OpenAlex
- W3099795341
- Cited by
- 94
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 9
- FWCI
- 14.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- GCB Bioenergy (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- New Mexico State University
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Bioenergy crop production and management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Microbial bioremediation and biosurfactants
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Heavy metals in environment
- Keywords
- hemp, Cannabis sativa, phytoremediation, bioenergy, heavy metals, radionuclides, organic pollutants, transesterification, anaerobic digestion, fermentation, combustion, metabolomics, contaminant partitioning, biomass feedstock
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
